Pacific Commerce and Produce

[?]eivers Claim [?]rol Of New [?]ea Hotels

a result of developments he Hamac —P&NG De

ment Corporation —Sangara

of events in Papua and

Guinea during September,

peared likely that some of mportant assets concerned i pass into the hands of re

rs appointed by Hamac

:ors. s a complicated situation, in iich hundreds of thousands of s are involved. The chain of is somewhat as follows: the 1950’5, the Harvey Trinder nee interests, which held the s Agency, accumulated profits JG.

L. F. McEachern, a Sydney )r of Harvey Trinder (NSW) took an active interest in the business, and was instrumental formation in P-NG of Hamac an investment company which i course was the nominal owner ht companies formed in P-NG ading and investment —namely: ia Estates, Ela Services, Eriama s, Eriama Shipping, Hamac ags, Hotel Cecil, Morobe Hotels Plantations. ! London directors of Harvey ;r decided against participation : P-NG activities; there was a between Harvey Trinder and chern interests; and this finally settled by the McEachern sts transferring their Harvey ;r shares to Harvey Trinder its, and thereafter accepting full isibility for the Hamac or ition in P-NG. appeared, at that stage, that c owed £330,000 to Harvey jr, and about £lOO,OOO to d and unsecured creditors, y in P-NG. McEachern interests ed of the Harvey Trinder debt, ted; but the unsecured creditors led to the courts. 5 Supreme Court, on April 1, ordered the Hamac companies quidation. rountants, lawyers and financiers were busy with many develop

ments. Sydney interests associated with Mr. L. F. McEachern formed the P and NG Development Corpora tion Ltd., with an authorised capital of £5 million in 5/- shares, and a Board consisting of Lord Lymington (chairman) and Messrs. G. A. C.

Kiernan and H. Stitt (Sydney), Stephenson and Fox (Papua). Lord Lymington then was also associated with Latec Investments Ltd.

P&NG Development in due course appealed to the P-NG Supreme Court for a stay of liquidation, offering in return guarantees that the creditors would be paid in full. After in vestigation, Chief Justice Mann granted a stay; and on October 6, 1961, the liquidation order was re moved, and P&NG Development took charge of the Hamac group.

Court’s conditions included provision that all debts must be paid in full, plus interest, and that substantial payments must be made by Septem ber 1, 1962.

As part of the conditions under which the Chief Justice allowed the group to be withdrawn from liquida tion, a deed was drawn up which gave the dissenting creditors a prior claim over all the assets of the P-NG Development Corporation in respect of an amount of £58,000, plus eight per cent, interest, which represented the P-NG Development’s debt to them. This, in effect, made them secured creditors.

In May, 1962, P-NG Development said it had sold Morobe Hotels Ltd. (Wau and Goroka Hotels), and Hotel Cecil Ltd. (Lae) and an interest in the Lae brewery to Sangara Holdings Ltd. for £101,185 in cash and 769,000 fully-paid 5/- ordinary shares in Sangara Holdings Ltd. —a company which had grown out of plantation interests held in the Sangara area of Papua by D. S. Wyllie, a Sydney investor. (Mr. Wyllie sold his in terests in Sangara at least two years ago.) Newspaper reports about this time said that Sangara proposed to pur chase other hotel interests in the Territory.

About July, 1962, it was announced that Sandy Creek Gold Sluicing Ltd. (originally a NG gold-mining com pany which had extended into invest ments) had purchased registered mortgage debentures in Sangara of a nominal value of £150,000. The debentures were payable in cash— £2s,ooo on June 30, 1963—thereafter £lO,OOO every six months.

The chairman of Sandy Creek was Mr. H. Stitt, who was one of the original P&NG Development direc tors. The managing directors were Messrs. George Forman and L. F.

McEachern.

A report was current about this time that the big Australian company, Latec Investments Ltd. was expected to give financial support to the Sangara-Sandy Creek enterprises.

It is possible that the Sangara- Sandy Creek plans for purchasing the chief assets of the P&NG Development Co. were dislocated by the sudden, unexpected and sensa tional collapse of Latec in August, with a reported deficiency of over £3 million. An inquiry into the

Latec collapse is currently going on in Sydney.

Sydney Stock Exchange quotations showed that Sangara shares, which were at 4/- to 4/3 in May last, were around 1/9 in August, and at 1/1 i to 1/3 in late September. Sandy Creek, at 1/6 to 1/7 in May last, were 1/3 to 1/8 in August, and 10id in late September.

The payments to Hamac creditors stipulated by the Court to be made by September 1, 1962, were not made; and counsel for the “dis senting creditors” (those who opposed the stay proceedings in 1961) took action early in September, 1962.

It was announced in mid-September that Messrs, J. I. Cromie (a leading Territory lawyer) and Mr. B. C.

Goodsell (general manager in P-NG for Burns Philp (NG) Ltd.) were the trustees for the “dissenting creditors”; and that Mr. A. H. Carter (manager ot the Port Moresby Freez ing Co., a Burns Philp subsidiary) had been appointed receiver for the dissenting creditors, and in that capacity would control certain Hamac assets, including the Wau, Goroka and Lae hotels.

Although PIM made an inquiry in Port Moresby on September 27, it then was not clear whether the receiver (Mr. Carter) planned to manage the hotels indefinitely, or whether it was proposed to sell them, to meet the debt of £58,000. It appeared that, under the Deed, the receiver was entitled to seize all the assets of P-NG Development; but up to that time he had shown interest in only the hotel properties. The position in regard to the Guinea Brewery shares, reported to hav? been sold by P-NG Development to Sangara, was unknown.

At date of this writing (late Sep tember) the situation is obscure.

PIM, in Sydney, sought statements which might give clarification from representatives of Hamac, P&NG Development, Sangara and Sandy Creek; but no one was available for comment.

Emperor Mines Ltd. Recovers But Dividend Passed Emperor Mines Ltd., now the only large gold producer in Fiji, has again omitted a dividend despite a profit recovery.

Annual accounts to June, 1962, show that profit moved up from £F9,062 to £F36,970 during the period ended June 13.

Production was a record 88,080 oz gold compared with 74,137 oz in the previous year. Ore treated at the company’s mill rose from 180,255 tons to 221,523 tons.

The higher output resulted from the company’s long-range expansion pro gramme planned to overcome rising costs, directors said.

General development continues to dis close average grade ore beyond earlier forecasts. Values recently encountered on No. 16 level eastern cross-cut, between the Wallace Smith shaft and the eastern ventilation shaft must be considered of major imoortance to the mine as they are at the lowest elevation yet dis covered on the field, the directors report stated.

Palgrave Corporation Shows

Big Consolidated Loss

Owners of Korfena coffee plantation in New Guinea and with a controlling interest in several small Islands trading companies. Palgrave Corporation Ltd. in its consolidated accounts for the year ended June 30 disclosed a loss of £163,765. The loss was occasioned mainly by a subsidiary called Time Savings Clocks (Aust.) Pty. Ltd. (£131,151 in the red), thousrh the parent company itself had a £32,614 loss.

Last year, Palgrave showed net profit of £81,965 and raised the dividend from 8 ner cent, to 9 per cent. In April this year, directors renorted that although ooerations had resulted in a loss for the six months to December, 1961, “an interim dividend of from 4 per cent, to 5 per cent, would be naid from accumulated nrofits”. There will be no final dividend for this year now.

Paid caoital of the company is £848,149 in 5/- shares (quoted on Sydney Stock Exchange around 2/6 to 2/7 in late September).

There have been several board changes during the nast 15 months. Mr. A. T.

Anderson resigned in August, 1961; Mr.

P. A. Cullen did not seek re-election at last annual meeting and was replaced bv Professor H. Messel; Mr. S. L. M. Eskell resigned as managing director on June 30 last, and Mr. W. S. Lamerton was then appointed a director.

Steamshios Trading Co.

Raises Ordinary Dividend

Steamships Trading Co. Ltd., of Papua, has lifted its ordinary dividend from 12 V 2 to 13-1/3 per cent, after a rise of £16,999 in net profit for the year to June 30.

At £263,454, profit is after tax £57,000 (up £1,000) and depreciation £61,738 (down £2,451).

The final dividend of 4d a share with the interim 614 per cent, makes 13-1/3 per cent, for the year.

Steamships took over Colyer Watson (NG) Ltd. last June and now trade both in Papua and in New Guinea.